THE MOST IMPORTANT TEST YOU’LL EVER TAKE:

Several friends and relatives in their sixties and seventies have said they no longer need Pap smears, mammograms, colonoscopies or PSA tests. “Oh, the doctor said I don’t need a mammogram at my age,” my cousin said. “Every older man has prostate cancer. It’s all slow growing so why have a PSA test,” a friend said. “At our age, we don’t need a physical every year,” another said.

WRONG! I’m here to give testimony that those opinions are wrong. I have four friends who were recently diagnosed with breast cancer and are now undergoing treatment. I have another who caught her uterine cancer in time because of a Pap smear. My own husband was just diagnosed last week with prostate cancer because of an elevated PSA test. And it’s not slow growing.

“Cases of aggressive prostate cancer appear to be on the rise,” NBC reported yesterday, citing a Northwestern University study.

“Prostate cancer is 100 percent treatable if detected early, but some men are more likely to develop aggressive disease that will recur, progress and metastasize,” said Dr. Jonathan Simons, president and CEO of the Prostate Cancer Foundation.